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The Catholic Diaries (DIII ODAC) Topic

Of the 25 players that I recruited in this first season, they have posted a total point accumulation of 909 points for an average of 36.36 points of total growth. The 25 upperclassmen (who have lost attribute points up until my take over, presumably due to no training plan set) that I have on the roster who were all SimAC signed players for a human (abandoned) coach also show an average of 36 points growth this season. So it's good to see that upperclassmen are working and recovering what they had lost in previous seasons. That doesn't really help for the Sr.s and Jr.s on the team, but perhaps the So.s can grow in to decent backups by the time they are Sr.'s. who knows.

3 players topped the list with each one of them showing a 54 point gain across attributes. All 3 of them are DBs, and only one is a starting Frosh with the other 2 being backup So.s.

Least amount of growth: 22 points for a starting Frosh punter. Too be fair, he lost 9 points due to me not training attributes like BLK, TKL, and ELU. The next least growth posted was a tie between a Frosh starting RB and a Junior benched DB showing 25 point growth across all attributes.

Highest growth (in a trained upon core) attribute: A back up Jr. Kicker with 8 points of growth in GI. Which puts his GI total at 24 and it was 19 when he was signed as a Freshman. So it is nice to see that the upperclassmen are getting back to, if not improving upon, their original core attribute numbers. Granted, they were all SimAC signed recruits, so their cores weren't good at all to begin with, but..... There is never any reason that horrible has to regress any more than it started it.

Highest Rated (Guess) player: Fr. RB @ 46.33 and started out with a rating of 44.04
Most Improved (Guess) player rating: Fr. DB (CB) Billy Chandler going from 40.77 to 45.41, a gain of 4.64 in his rating for ........ Safety..?! I'm going to have to readjust my roster.
Least Improved (Guess) player rating: Jr. DB Matthew Tanner gaining only 2 points of total growth in both CB and S position to become 22.47 and 23.25, respectively.

Class Structure:
Fr. - 25
So. - 7
Jr. - 8
Sr. - 10

I had no redshirts this year, so my class size will be pretty much the same next year, except I am going to opt to cut 3 So.'s at the end of this season to make next years class sizes look like this:
Fr. - 13
So. - 25
Jr. - 4
Sr. - 8

I guess I should start laying out a plan of how I am going to work out my class sizes. I saw a posting where some folks advocate 22-3-22-3 as the most effective. I have never tried that, but would be interested to see the results it puts forth, so I may make that my goal.

Regardless on how I decide to structure the class, in only 2 seasons I will have 38 of my own recruited players on the roster, over 3/4's of the total team. They may not be very good due to my limited vision, and some would say my recruiting ability, but they will beat the heck out of SimAC recruited ones.

One bright note as the season closed on my 2-11 record, my Freshman QB was voted as conference rookie of the year! There may be hope for him yet...........

I didn't look at any ones record, I just grabbed 3 sim teams to get practices in for my players as soon as I could. Don't usually put stock in exhib games, but it has been nice to see some points scored and defense played by my team. Also been trying out some different game plans.

Posted by sawedoff on 10/8/2012 9:32:00 PM (view original):Yeah, as soon as I said that, I wake up to find I lost to Muhlenberg by 2. I didn't expect to be too competitive though, I started all of my Sophomores to give them some game time.

Muhlenberg might be the team to beat this season. I lost to them by 6 in the exhib game. oh well.

Recruiting - Not going to talk to much about this because signings haven't happened yet and I found myself in a battle. Which is weird because my vision is worse than $h!t and I'm not sure why anyone would want the guys I have my sights on, let alone come in on them late in the cycle. But, it takes all kinds I guess. The important thing is that I will fill all my schollies (13) and they will be my crappy recruited players and not the SimAC signed recruits that the team was full of. Completing this season will put me at having 38 of my own players in only 2 seasons coaching the team. I'll list my target playing positions and targeted players after I have filled my class.

Exhib Games - I don't really care if my freshmen signees get an exhib game before the season officially starts, so I tend to just schedule 3 Exhib games against the SimAI to work on some game planning and get my upperclassmen some practices to start the seasons growth. In my other teams, I try to schedule one Exhib game against a team that is a Division higher, but didn't see the point in that with this team. yet. The good news is that we generated some offense in all 3 games and I got to play with some game plans to see which fits best with the personnel I have as opposed to recruiting people specifically for the game plan. I just don't have that luxury since I'm confined by keeping in a close distance and cr@p vision. I also don't put a lot of stock into Exhib games as a season predictor but they do show a little about how your players are developing.

Ex Game 1 - Carthage - Spread: +8.5 - Result: W 27-3

Not only did we beat the spread, we generated some offense with 338 Passing yards and 57 rushing yards. My QB is developing somewhat and he went 24/39 4TD 0INT.... Yes, 0 INT!!! that is a victory in itself since he tossed 25 picks last season to only 16TDs. We held them to only 3 points and 254 yards total offense with only 97 in the air. Our Defense played decent by getting 2 sacks, forcing 2 fumbles, and making 2 interceptions. Unfortunately, we kept our trend up by allowing them to sack us 4 times and giving up 1 INT (from the punter who came in to relieve the one and only QB on the team). My kicker went 0fer3 on FG and 3/4 on XP, while my punter booted it 7 times for a 45.3yd average.

Ex Game 2 - Pomona-Pitzer - Spread: -18.5 (seriously) - Result: W 30-3
Another good showing of offense and containing defense. Pomona-Pitzer may be the team that takes CUAs place at the bottom of the barrel. Seems that they were abandoned too and have an all SimAC signed players. Sucks for them, good for me.
Total Offense: 464yds, 187 passing with 1 TD and 277 rushing for 2 TDs.
Total Offense allowed: 358yds, 261 passing and 97 rushing.
Turnovers: 1 INT, 3 FUM
Takeaways: 1 INT, 3FUM
Sacks: 2 but also had 6 Tackles for losses
Sacks Allowed: 1 and had no tackles for losses.
My Kicking: 3/4 FG and 3/3 XP, while punting 8 times for a 44.3yd average

So we gave up alot of yards but only a Field Goal. The line played a little better and only gave up one sack. But my running game seemed to have found some success. As long as I play abandoned teams, I should be all right this season!

Ex Game 3 - Muhlenberg - Spread: +3.5 Result: L 20-27
A close loss, something iffy with this game plan since I gave up 10 points in both the 2 and 4th quarters and only scored 3 in each of them.
Total Offense: 291, 221 passing on 2 TDs, 70 rushing with no TD
Total Offense Allowed: 344, 231 passingon 2 TD, 113 rushing with no TD.
Turnovers: 1 INT, 2 FUM
Takeaways: 1 INT
Sacks: 1 wtih 4 tackles for a loss
Sacks allowed: 3 abd 1 tackle for a loss
Kicking: 2/2 FG and 2/2 XP with 8 punts for 43.0yd average

So glaring deficencies is that I need a better team. Baring that, I need my QB to develop and to work on his completion rate. This probably can be attributed to poor O-Line and not very good targets along with the aggressive settings I was playing with in the game plan. My rushing game seems to be on track, but it was against a pi$$-poor opponent, so I can't really judge it accurately. I do know it is going to be another long season but I should show some more improvement in trying to get this train back on track. Next up: player development reports and hopefully soon, the new recruit class.

Team average growth: 8 points
Highest gainer: 18 points (So. DB that I recruited)
Lowest gain: 0 (So. DB that I recruited, the same slow developer from last year. I recruited him too)

Players I signed: 25
Total point growth: 219
Average gain: 8.76
My signed Players with double digit gains: 11
Highest gainer: 18 points (So. DB that I recruited)
Lowest gain: 0 (So. DB that I recruited, the same slow developer from last year. I recruited him too)

Highest Rated (Guess) player: Fr. RB @ 46.33 and started out with a rating of 44.04
Most Improved (Guess) player rating: Fr. DB (CB) Billy Chandler going from 40.77 to 45.41, a gain of 4.64 in his rating for ........ Safety..?! I'm going to have to readjust my roster.
Least Improved (Guess) player rating: Jr. DB Matthew Tanner gaining only 2 points of total growth in both CB and S position to become 22.47 and 23.25, respectively.

Highest Rated (Guess) player: So. RB @ 47.57, started at 44.04 and ended the season at 46.33
My Most Improved (Guess) from start of last season: So. DB @ 47.34 started @ 40.77 for 6.57 in rating growth
Overall Most improved (Guess) from start of last season: Sr. K @ 31.15, started at 23.85, for 7.3 in rating growth
My Most Improved (Guess) from the start of last season: So. DB @ 47.34 with 6.57 in rating growth
Overall Most Improved (Guess) over the 3 exhib games: Sr. K @ 31.15 with 2.15 Guess rating growth
My Least Improved (Guess) from start of last season: So. RB @ 47.57 with only 3.53 points in ratings growth
Overall Least Improved (Guess) from start of last season: Sr. DB @ 24.68 with only 3.43 points of rating growth
My Least Improved (Guess) over the 3 exhib games: So. DB @ 41.32 with only 0.75 rating growth
Overall Least Improved (Guess) over the 3 exhib games: Sr. DB @ 24.68 with only 0.89 rating growth.

Team Average rating (Guess) after 3 exhib games this season **not including incoming freshmen**: 40.01
Team Average Rating (Guess) start of last season: 34.38
Team Average Rating (Guess) Difference: 5.63

Well, I failed to follow my most basic advice that I give noobs asking about recruiting. FILL ALL OF YOUR OWN SCHOLLIES!!!!

That being said, I engaged in an expensive and protracted recruit battle almost from the start. I don't know if it was hubris or just fun as the reason why I did it, but I miscalculated some recruiting actions and had to fend off a late cycle poach from a different coach than the one I was battling. In the end, I spent a good chunk of $$ and lost the recruit early on the last (or next to last) day. I was able to find a back up who I was able to put an AC Scout and a Scholarship offer on. He never turned green on me and in the end decided to pass up the scholarship. I knew better than to do what I was doing, but......... eh. I'll have to keep my head about me next season so that I can stay on target. Anyway, here is how I ended up for the recruiting:

Of 13 Scholarships available, I filled 12 and took one SimAC signed recruit. blah.
My targets were QB - 3RB - 3WR - TE - OL - DL - LB - 2DB and I missed on the 3rd WR and took a cr@p extra QB. I did however manage to sneak a 4 Star and two 5 Star recruits into this class.

Guess Class rating: 20 - so I still pulled a top 25 recruit class, guess without 3 full seasons under my belt to establish vision, I get the benefit of the doubt. Last years class rating had me at 47th overall.
Guess Class Average rating: 39.57 not bad and higher than last years average of 38.37

Here is the class breakdown:

Name

Primary
Position

Rating

Secondary
Position

Rating

Overall
Rank

Position
Rank

Class Rank
Overall

Class Rank
Position

Frank Andrews

RB

43.81

FB

33.65

4662

RB561

103

RB29

Wayne Jackson

WR

43.49

4892

WR712

125

WR32

Richard Ellison

OL

42.98

5259

OL863

163

OL13

Danny Campbell

DT

42.78

DE

37.84

5389

DT1006

178

DT39

William James

CB

42.35

S

39.81

5655

CB333

236

CB6

Tony Mack

WR

41.43

6253

WR896

374

WR81

John Smith

S

41.27

CB

38.16

6374

S530

401

S24

Corey Wright

RB

41.00

FB

31.41

6553

RB704

448

RB80

Robert Ryan

RB

40.44

FB

33.74

6907

RB737

566

RB96

Troy Scott

ILB

40.31

OLB

35.83

6997

ILB626

609

ILB72

Danny Jones

TE

38.89

7945

TE431

1040

TE44

Martin King

QB

34.73

10002

QB529

2303

QB10

William Maddox

QB

20.92

11350

QB846

3033

QB208

So with the exception of 20.whatever SimAC QB, it is a fairly decent class. For me and the Catholic University.
3 recruits in the top 10 of their position.
8 recruits in the top 50 of their position.

Overall highest rated class came in at 44.48 and a top recruit at 48.48, far higher than my top one at 43.81

The addition of these recruits and the growth of last years players has moved the team up from 226 overall team rating last season (228 the year before that) to 207th.

Offense

Overall Offense : D
Rush Offense : C-
Pass Offense : D

QB

RB

FB

WR

TE

OL

D

D

N/A

D

D

D-

Defense

Overall Defense : C-
Rush Defense : C-
Pass Defense : C-

DE

DT

OLB

ILB

CB

S

N/A

D-

N/A

D+

D-

D+

The team report card is showing improvement of all F's across the board last year in each position and each offensive/defensive category. So there is improvement there.

Score:
Wilkes - 5
Catholic - 30
A season opening win for CUA and a covering of a pretty sizable spread.

Wilkes looks to have been one of "those" schools who went through a few coaches who abandoned them and they have spent the last few seasons under the SimAI Coaching and having a horrible record. I'm glad I scheduled them, getting the season off right with an opening patsy (this time the patsy isn't my team) and building from there.

So I picked on a SimAI team as my season opener and it worked out for me. I'm still running a balanced OFF as my primary, but I have a balanced passing attack that was thrown in there for some of the game. As long as I play cupcakes, and my schedule is all SimAI except for one conference game against a human, I should post a fairly decent record. I know that a couple of the sims will beat me but hopefully I can post a winning record this season. I intentionally scheduled cupcake SIMAI teams in my OOC to give me a better chance of more wins. My philosophy on this is to build wins to improve vision to recruit better players to make the team better and more competitive down the road. Getting into the playoffs is not a short term goal of mine.